once upon a time
by Synesthesiae
Summary: Ai isn't the type to believe in fairy tales but during her stay in America, there was a "once upon a time..." for her.


"Can't believe a high schooler like me is eating lunch like this," muttered Conan as he tore apart his bread in disdain.

The Teitan elementary students were having lunch in their respective classrooms. Conan's teacher, Sumiko, was eating from her own tray in the front of the classroom, and Conan was sitting with his friends in the center of the room.

Upon hearing his complaint, Ai smirked. "I think it's nice," she said softly, breaking her bread in half. "When I went to school in America, they had no such system so I usually ate alone. It's nice eating together like this, I suppose."

Conan glanced at her while popping a carrot in his mouth. "Why did you have to eat alone? Don't tell me you were a loner then?" he asked jokingly.

"Ah, I thought that was already settled," she said.

He smiled. "Agreed." He nodded his head then pondered. "But I'd have thought a girl like you would at least have one guy friend."

Ai was in the process of eating her soup when he said that. Her spoon was half way to her lips when her hand halted and she turned to look at him with slightly wide eyes. "What's that supposed to mean?" she asked, trying to hide the puzzlement in her voice.

Conan merely shrugged. "Well, you're not too bad looking and you're obviously smart so it's a wonder why you were friendless," he answered before resuming popping the carrots in his mouth.

Ai simply stared at the boy next to her who was eating his lunch innocently and had no regard for what he had just said.

She had never thought the memories of those days would surface again. She had never suspected _his_ face and smile would ever come up again in this lifetime.

But it did.

x

x

x

" _Ah Shiho, there you are."_

 _Shiho looked up from her reading and saw a handsome blond boy walking toward her. He was tall, slender, good-looking, intelligent. He was the prize, the target of most girls in this gigantic school. He looked like an angel descended straight from heaven with an angel's personality._

 _He shouldn't be involved with her. He shouldn't be her friend. Her only friend. He should've stayed away from her. From her life. From the Black Organization._

 _She had tried to avoid him many times to no avail. He had his way of winning her over._

 _And his name was Tommy._

" _Tommy," Shiho said, nodding her head, trying to subdue the loud beating of her heart. She could feel million eyes in the cafeteria piercing her as his presence drew closer. Out of habit, Shiho picked up her cup of black coffee and absentmindedly took a sip._

 _Tommy sat down across from her. He had on his trademark bright, beautiful smile as he flipped his book open._

 _"I have a theory to discuss with you," he said, still smiling._

" _Is it for psychology?"_

" _Yep. We just came out of that class and I just took a million notes and I'm still lost." He laughed._

" _You're underestimating yourself, Tommy," she said softly. "I'm sure you're just dumbing yourself down in order to talk to me."_

 _He looked aghast and she smirked. "No way!" he said with widened eyes. "You're the smartest girl I've ever known, Shiho. If there's anyone dumbing down, it's you doing the dumbing in order to talk to me."_

 _Shiho chuckled, pushing her cup of coffee away, clasped her hands, put her chin on her intertwined fingers and gave him her full attention. "So what is it Tommy?" she asked. "What brings you to me today?"_

 _Tommy's lips lifted up into a beautiful smirk. He cleared his throat and began. "Well as the professor said earlier…"_

 _That's how they met. In a classroom. As classmates. When both argued about a controversial theory. When the professor told them to discuss between themselves outside of classroom. Of course Shiho never cared. Tommy did. He hunted her down. She avoided him, was being impossibly rude to him. But he didn't give up. After many attempts of trying to befriend her yet not creeping her out, he managed to become her one and only friend in the entire school._

 _When that happened, girls hated her. Guys never really cared. If there's one thing guys noticed about her, it's her good looks. Tommy was the only one who looked past it and focused on the one thing that truly mattered. Her brains._

 _One day it snowed and rained and Shiho blamed herself for not checking the weather before leaving her apartment. Now, she's stuck at school to wait it out. Most people had already left and she had no idea how long she would have to wait._

 _Shiho never wasted a second in terms of building her knowledge. As she was waiting for the rain to let up, she had pulled out her papers and was reading when someone stepped up to her._

 _She saw the shadow of the umbrella first before seeing his face._

" _It won't stop until midnight," Tommy said as if reading her mind._

 _Shiho closed her book. "That's fine. Don't you have practice to do?" she asked. He played basketball and was particularly good at it._

" _Coach let us go early. Looks like weather will be getting worse."_

 _She glanced past his shoulder at the gray sky with its thick clouds and sighed. "Just my luck," she murmured._

 _Tommy wiggled the umbrella in his hand. "Our houses are in the same direction, I believe." He smiled._

 _She didn't know where he lived. She didn't know he'd lied so he could walk her home._

 _She only found out when it's too late._

 _On their walk home, they didn't talk much. Occasionally, Tommy would ask her a question or two about a school subject, and she would ask him how practice was. They barely talked about their private lives. From what she could tell from pure observation, he was a single child of a wealthy family. His father was a CEO of some company and his mother was a socialite. The only personal thing about his life he'd let slip was that even though he was rich and spoiled, he was lonely most of the time._

 _That night, Shiho got a call from Gin._

" _How do you like the school?" he asked gruffly into the phone._

 _Shiho had just come out of the shower and was drying her hair when he called._

" _It's fine," she answered. "I'm learning a lot."_

" _Good." A pause. "Listen, Shiho. After next year, we'd like you to come back here."_

 _She stopped drying her hair. "How come?" she asked softly._

" _You think we sent you to America so you can live the rest of your life there? Don't be naïve, Shiho."_

 _She winced slightly at the harshness of his tone. "I'm very well aware of that, Gin," she said. "I just thought the original plan was for me to finish my college years here."_

" _Change of plans," he answered curtly. "After next year, we'd like you back. All those years in America are deemed enough by our boss."_

" _Is that so?"_

 _Another pause._

" _Shiho-"_

 _"Gin-"_

 _"What?" he said._

" _Nothing. I-I have to go."_

" _Fine. I have an advice for you, Shiho. Don't make any connections there."_

 _Before she could say anything in return, Gin hung up._

 _Ever since she'd entered college, Shiho and Tommy had been friends._

" _It's been almost two years, right?" he asked one day when they were sitting in the cafeteria eating breakfast._

 _Shiho was sipping her black coffee with three sugar cubes as she watched him spread butter on his bagel._

Don't make any connections there.

 _Gin's words resonated in her head. It'd been almost a week since their last talk, and Shiho couldn't stop thinking about his words._

 _Could he possibly have known about Tommy? But even so, Tommy and she were just friends. He was clearly not a threat to the Organization._

 _However, with that thought in mind, Shiho's hands trembled. She didn't want to endanger the only friend she had. But now looking into his clear, bright emerald-green eyes, she couldn't bring herself to break it off._

 _She should have._

" _Are you free after school today?" he asked, pulling her from her reverie._

" _I might. Why?"_

 _Tommy pulled out his cell phone, unlocked it and showed her the screen. She leaned forward slightly and stared down at what appeared to be a flier of a Japanese festival._

" _I saw this today on the way to school," he explained as she read the words on said flier. "I just thought maybe we could go there today. Reminds you of home, right?"_

 _Shiho snapped her head up and their eyes locked. For a moment, an inexplicable feeling washed over her. It was frightening. He didn't even blink and it was her who broke their eye contact._

" _I'll let you know later," she said quickly before standing up. Gathering her books and her cup of coffee, she looked down at him. No words formed on her tongue. All she could manage to do was smile slightly, turn around and walk away._

 _She could feel his gaze piercing her back._

 _Shiho made a quick call to her sister during break between classes that day._

 _The phone rang and rang and rang. It'd been a couple days since they last spoke. Shiho tried to call Akemi many times after Gin's phone call but the attempt was futile. Her sister never picked up or returned her calls._

 _Another voicemail. Shiho sighed as she leaned against the wall._

" _Big Sis, this is me again. Can you please give me a call back? I think this is the 50_ _th_ _time I'm trying to reach you. What's going on? It's not like you to not return my calls. I'm getting really worried now, so call me soon okay? I-I have something to discuss with you." She hung up._

 _Akemi would know what to do in this situation. Her sister had a boyfriend after all. Surely she could tell her what usually happened on a date. Yes, a date. Shiho realized Tommy was trying to cross the line this morning when he mentioned the festival. She might be a loner but she wasn't naïve. She knew when boys wanted to make an advance._

 _Sucking in a deep breath, she slowly let it out. Of course she's worried about her sister and her sudden silence. Usually, the sisters talked every other day. Akemi would keep her up to date with the Organization's activities, her life, and Shiho would involve her sister in her own. The sisters were each other's family. They had no one else._

 _Shiho wouldn't see Tommy again until the last class ended today, and if she didn't say something soon, he would leave and she would miss her chance._

 _She knew he was in Chemistry class so he would check his phone in an hour. Drafting up a message, she proofread it quickly before hitting send. Heaving another sigh, she straightened up and headed to the library._

 _When Chemistry ended, Tommy pulled out his phone and checked it. A message from Shiho popped up on his screen. Quickly opening it, he read it and a beautiful smile dawned on his handsome face._

 _Shiho was all ready for the night._

 _After taking a quick shower after school, she put on her favorite casual dress that was rarely put into use. It had a beautiful pine green color, a floral design and fell to half of her thighs. As she stared at her twin image in the mirror, her bright green eyes looked back at her with approval._

 _She was thinking that she should send Tommy a message saying that she's on the way when there's a knock on her apartment's door._

 _Surprise hit her but she quickly recovered. No one ever came to her apartment. Never. And Tommy didn't know where she lived so who could it be?_

 _She should never have opened the door._

 _Standing on the other side of the threshold was a tall man with long, flowing silver hair and dressed in complete black. Even indoors, he still had a black hat sitting on his head, and Shiho unconsciously swallowed._

" _Pack" was his simple word before he pushed his way into her room._

 _Dazed from the surprised visit, she could only stand there staring after him._

" _Didn't you hear me?" His voice was harsher as he continued. His back was still to her. "I told you to pack what you need right now."_

 _"What are you doing here, Gin?" she said, still rooted to her place._

" _Change of plans," he spoke. "We're leaving now, so go pack."_

" _What about school? My studies?"_ Tommy.

" _Doesn't matter." Suddenly, he spun around to face her. His eyes were dark and dangerous. She involuntarily flinched. "You're gonna be sorry if you make me repeat myself again, Shiho," he growled. And before she knew it, she was scrambling on her feet doing what he'd said._

 _In such a short notice, she couldn't pack much so she'd only gotten what she truly needed such as her clothes, her books. Then, she was ushered out of her apartment by Vodka._

" _What's going on, Vodka?" she whispered as the man escorted her to the black limo parked in front of her complex._

" _Just get in," he said curtly._

" _Is my sister okay?"_

" _She's fine." Then the door slammed shut behind her, and the engine revved to life._

 _Gin was walking around Shiho's apartment when he noticed her cell phone on the dresser. Picking it up, he idly went through it and smirked to himself as he realized how silly she was for not using a password. Then, his fingers stopped._

 _A message from a boy named Tommy popped up on the screen and it said, "On my way." Gin opened her inbox and the second newest message he saw was:_

 _It's a date._

 _Shiho didn't realize she'd forgotten to grab her phone in her rush until the car was already cruising along the highway._

x

x

x

"Oi, earth to Haibara."

Ai almost jumped out of her skin at the voice booming in her ear.

"What are you doing, Edogawa-kun?" Ai said in slight annoyance as she touched her ear in an effort to show him that what he did was unnecessary.

Conan grinned. "It's a rarity to see you daydream this long. Have you been listening to our conversation?" he asked.

"Of course," she said coldly. "It's about Genta-kun, correct?"

Conan blinked. "Wow, good guess."

"Not a guess. I was really paying attention, Edogawa-kun, whether you believe me or not," she replied.

 _It was really a lucky guess,_ she thought to herself. _Since Genta-kun's the only one missing right now in our group, there must be something wrong with him._

"So as I was saying about Genta, it's probably…"

But Ai wasn't listening anymore. She was looking out the window at the bright, cloudless skies above and wondering about Tommy. She wondered what had happened to him. Whether Gin found out about him. If Tommy moved on and forgot about her.

Last but not least, she wondered what would have happened if Gin hadn't interrupted that night. She wondered if she and Tommy could have been more than friends after that night.

Then again, it's all guesswork and fantasies because the truth was that she'd left without telling him anything. If anything, he must have hated her for what she did.

She prayed that he was living somewhere peacefully and happily. However, she also prayed that he hadn't completely forgotten about her…

Tommy was, after all, the only person she'd ever felt anything for during her stay in America.

 **~fin~**

* * *

disclaimer: I don't own Detective Conan.

Thank you for reading!


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